3e Régiment de Chasseurs-à-Cheval

This weeks output is another unit for the Napoleonic French forces for the Hundred Days campaign with the 3rd Regiment of Chasseurs-à-Cheval completed.

I usually moan about the time it takes me to paint a unit of cavalry, but I may have found just the thing in these, maybe it's because unlike other cavalry types they the lack the fuss and feathers that Aly noted recently.

All the figures are from Perry Miniatures and are from the French Line Chasseurs a Cheval 1808-15 set.

It will likely give the purists palpitations, but, I assembled them in a mix of Spencer and Kinski coats, while some have overalls and others have breeches.

The Eagle was left over from one of my line infantry units and the standard is from GMB Designs.

As well as ordering this set I also ordered from the Perry's a few more French Light cavalry horses and a Chasseurs a Cheval command frame, so I will have enough troops to make a second unit up.

Some of the individual bases, the office in this set is really very nicely done, on a rearing horse. I clipped his base and pushed him far forwards on the stand to make it look like he was eagerly leading the charge.

It does though mean that he now only has a single point of contact with his base, I will need to be careful. The porte-étendard is one of the open handed figures from the set with an Eagle from the infantry set.

There is bags of animation that can be made from the set, this pair from the 6th company demonstrate that nicely.

Despite being a cavalry regiment I'm quite looking forwards to painting another unit of these.

On deck at the moment are a few more infantry skirmishers and some commanders.

1er Bataillon, 51er Régiment de Ligne

Another blog post and another unit of French added to their forces for the 100 Days campaign.

This unit represents the 1st Battalion of the 51st Regiment of the Line that was part of the Second Brigade of the Second Division of the First Corps under D'Erlon.

With the exception of the officer in the front rank, all the troops are from the Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Infantry set. The officer is from the Line Infantry Officers pack and adds a bit of variety.

Quite a few of the figures have had head swaps some have different shakos, but, both pokalem and bonnet de police are also used on quite a few.

These are the last few of my infantry from the 1812 to 1815 set but once other stuff in the backlog is painted I can see me getting more of these as they are lovely figures, paint up nicely and are a great way to inexpensively build up your forces. I can now field 17 battalions of foot made mainly of these figures.

It's took a little longer to paint these than would normally take me to do a unit, but the Wisconsin summer has really kicked in and not only are temperatures hovering around the 30C mark it's damned humid so I'm painting in much shorter sessions than normal.

Another effect of the high humidity is that the initial coat of Testors left these a little bit frosted, really only noticeable on the flag, but I was able to recover with a second coat and then a coating of PVA painted onto the standard.

By the way, the standard is from GMB Designs really great flags that add a splash more colour to your units. To avoid the white edge that sometimes is evident I just paint the fringing with a wash of a suitable colour, in this case VMC Gold.

Apologies for anybody who thinks that the copyright notice is rather distracting. One of the sock-puppet accounts on TMP has been taking my content and re-posting it to TMP. Despite multiple requests to stop doing it and delete the post it is still an ongoing problem so I'm putting a copyright notice on the images for now.

If I wanted my work on TMP I would put it there, however I have no desire to support that place.

Hopefully, TMP will disappear into the abyss one of these days and it will no longer be a problem.

On deck on the painting table now I have a unit of French Chasseurs-à-Cheval, given my usual slowness when painting cavalry and the humid summer, it may be a little while before the next painted unit update.

19e Companie 6e d'Artillerie a Pied

Steady progress on the Napoleonic forces this week with the completion of a battery of artillery, represented by these two pieces.

Both guns are six pounders and are the Perry Miniatures Foot Artillery loading 6 pounder model.

These guns and crews are representing the 19th Company of the 6th Foot Artillery which were attached to the 3rd Division of D'Erlons 1st Corps at Waterloo.

No real change from my paint scheme for these, the jackets are off a base-coat of Dark Prussian Blue, the overalls and shako covers a mix of Khaki, French Horizon Blue, Basalt Grey, Beige Brown with a few overalls in Dark Prussian Blue or Ivory.

The artillery pieces are base-coated with Russian Uniform WWII. 

Everything is then washed with Army Painter strong tone and when that is dried the base-coats re-done and then a couple of highlight added.

It's not the most efficient painting method, but it does not take too long to do each figure and my knackered old eyes are happy enough with the result.

Apologies for anybody who thinks that the copyright notice is rather distracting. One of the sock-puppet accounts on TMP has been taking my content and re-posting it to TMP. Despite multiple requests to stop doing it and delete the post it is still an ongoing problem so I'm putting a copyright notice on the images for now.

If I wanted my work on TMP I would put it there, however I have no desire to support that place.

Hopefully, TMP will disappear into the abyss one of these days and it will no longer be a problem.

I've now got eight units completed for the French forces, five infantry, two cavalry and these guns and I hope to reach a target of twelve units next month and they will likely be 'game ready' for a 'big battle' game.

Of course they have no opponents so I'll have to make a start on another force before I can play.

Cassian Andor and K-2SO

I'm a very luck chap, for Fathers Day my daughter bought me the Cassian Andor and K-2SO Commander Expansion for Star Wars: Legion.

For Cassian, I elected to build him with the A280-CFE pistol configuration. The kit also includes the sniper configuration and a compact blaster option.

These were painted in my usual, basecoat, wash, two or three highlights method.

Cassian's parka is rather a strange dark blue/grey colour that I did not have anything specific for so I base-coated with a 50:50 mix of Black-grey and Dark Prussian Blue, then after the wash reapplied this as a base-coat then added two more layers with more Pale Grey added to each. I do like the effect and think it came out a good match to the parka worn in Rogue One.

The trousers are from Khaki, the fur trim is a basecoat of Field Drab and the back-pack off of Black-grey. The A-280 is done off of Basalt Grey.

The detail on the parka is off of German Camo Beige and the gloves and belt from Beige Brown.

K-2SO is another great model that really captures this droid. For this one I selected the option of Jyn's SE-14 blaster in his right hand and nothing in his left hand.

This was a really easy paint job, the model was painted all over Black-grey, detail at the knees, elbows, etc. picked out in Pale Grey and the arm sockets in Golden Brown. The SE-14 was painted Basalt grey.

After a wash of AP Strong Tone the base-coats were re-applied and then a couple of highlights added.

The bases are a done in pumice gel with some patches of grit added when dry. The whole lot painted in Flat Earth then dry-brushed with Iraqi Sand then Pale Sand before a coat of Testors dull-cote.

As can be expected from these models, although pricey they are lovely figures with bags of character and detail. 

Apologies for anybody who thinks that the copyright notice on each picture is rather distracting. One of the sock-puppet accounts on TMP has been taking my content and re-posting it to TMP. Despite multiple requests to stop doing it and delete the post it is still an ongoing problem so I'm putting a copyright notice on the images for now.

If I wanted my work on TMP I would put it there, however I have no desire to support that place.

Hopefully, TMP will disappear into the abyss one of these days and it will no longer be a problem.

I've been painting a load of 28mm Perry Miniatures of late and switching back to the Star Wars: Legion stuff made me realise just how huge these models are. I know that the Napoleonic chap is on a slim Renedra base, but looks at the size difference between them!

French commanders, characters and personalities

After the cavalry last week I needed something to get me back into the painting groove so started adding a few personalities to the force.

First up was a Colonel from the 4e Régiment de Chevaux-légers (Lanciers).

The Warlord Games French Line lancers that I painted in the last batch include a 13th figure in the form of this mounted officer.

Rather than adding him to the unit I decided that he could command one of my light cavalry brigades.

He's rather dynamically posed and looks rather heroic, but, as a white metal figure with only a single point of contact to the base I do wonder how long he will last. I suppose I better not play any games with smush-handed friends.

As he was started at the same time as the other lancers he is in the colours of the 4th Chevaux-léger with red collar, facings, etc.

The next mounted officer is from the Perry Miniatures Mounted Infantry Colonels pack.

This base will represent one of my infantry brigade commands in our 'Big battle' game and a commander in one of our Sharp Practice games.

He is joined on the base by a sergeant from the Perry Miniatures Line Infantry NCO's pack, although looking back, I've been a goob and not painted his stripes.

As more infantry and cavalry get painted I plan to add a few more of these command bases for our bigger games. I've played Black Powder in the past, but was not that enamoured with them.

 
In the past few weeks I've purchased both Over the Hills and General d’Armee and have high hopes that they may fill the role for these games.

I've also been playing quite a few games of Command & Colours with mates back in the UK during the lock-down and I think that these have potential on the tabletop too.

The last three figures will work equally well as leaders in our Sharp Practice games and as markers for disorder in our 'big battle games.

The two NCO's are also from the Line Infantry NCO's pack, while the officer is from the Line Infantry Officers pack.

Again, I've only painted the NCO stripes on one of them, I may have to go back and do those on this one too.

Apologies for anybody who thinks that the copyright notice is rather distracting. One of the sock-puppet accounts on TMP has been taking my content and re-posting it to TMP. Despite multiple requests to stop doing it and delete the post it is still an ongoing problem so I'm putting a copyright notice on the images for now.

If I wanted my work on TMP I would put it there, however I have no desire to support that place.

Hopefully, TMP will disappear into the abyss one of these days and it will no longer be a problem.

Happy July the 4th to my temporary home and good gaming to you all.